The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1887-12-15
DON'T WANT THEIR VESSELS.
But will Let Them Lie, and Damages Pile
ND at Ounalaska.

CHICAGO. Dec. 13.-The Times Wash
inpton special says: As practically no
| information can be got from the depart
ments. asked gentleman who is in the
way of getting the news from Alaska
whether he had any knowledge of the
release of the British sealers captured in
June, 1856, and ordered released on the
1st of last January, and again October
18th. In reply he said: The owners of
these vessels have been able To get them
at any time they wanted them since the
order for release reached Sitka last Feb
ruary. They have made no move to take
them because they learned that the order
for discuntinuance of the proceedings
and the release of the vessels was in the
nature of a pardon, and if they accepted
the vessels under the circumstances, they
implied an acknowledgment of illegality
of their own conduct, and waived their
claims to reimbursement for their loss
bv the United States. What they want
is damages. They are afraid that if they
accent the Presidents order to release
their ships they will destroy the grounds
for their claims against this govern
ment."
But are their ships not rotting?r /
asked.
"They must be worth something. or
they must have been worth something
ten months ago. notice that a Cana
dian officer that has been out there SAYS
the machinery is rusting and their seams
are opening, and their value is now al
most gone"
NV informant replied: That is only
part of the case for damages to be
asked of our government. The Cana
dian official only went to Sitka and the
n ocl-
hundred miles away. They ride in q
little land-locked cove, where they are
perfectly safe and they can lie there
twenty wears without serious injury.
Judge Dawson never revoked the order
for their release. The order has been
imperative, because the owners never
claimed their property. Perhaps they
would like us to send the vessels home TO
them. but that we are not likely to do.
They can have them if they will take
them. [ know that the three depart
ments of the government - Treasury,
State and Justice-have been acting in
perfect accord. Bayard did not want the
fishery negotiations complicated with
the Behring sea affair, and the captains
whose vessels we're seized in 1886 pleaded
ignorance, and Mr.. Bayard was quite
ready to recommend that they be dealt
with generously.
He wrote to the Sitka officials to know
why they had not obeyed his order, and
they did not reply that they had Obeyed,
but the owners of the sealers would not
ask for their property. What they re-
piled, according to the Attorney-Gen-
erals statement was that they thought
the order was not genuine. They sus-
pected it of being a forgery. This makes
it certain that, whatever the owners of
the captured vessels have done, or failed
to do, the thing that was ordered by the
Acknowledgement last winter at the in
stance of the President was not done ac-
cording to the understanding of the At
torney- General, as well as of his subordi-
mates at Sitka.
While this explanation of the status of
the captured Sealers seems plausible, the
fact is, that Attorney-General Garland
did not use it n couple of months ago
when it would have been most conven-
lent for him, and the state department
has not used it, though it would have
saved that department much sharp criti-
cism. On the 18th of October the Attor-
ney-General telegraphed to the officer at
Sitka TO obey the order of January last
and release the vessels. In explaining
this order to the public through the As
S0clated Press, Garland dld not suggest
that the sealers had not been taken
away because their owners had not asked
for them, but he said he did not know
until shortly before October 18th that
the order of January had never been
obeyed.
Captains who took their sealing YES
sells into Behring sea in 1887 cannot
plead ignorance. They knew they were
violating our laws, and their vessels were
seized and they will not be released.
The English authorities recognize the
fact that the seal fisheries would not last
two years if everybody could kill seals,
and that our protection of the seal fish
cries is precisely analogous to the British
protection of the pearl fisheries of Ceylon.
And the English have no notion of push
ing the claims of their own poachers.
Besides, there is as much money In the
seal business, as now conducted, for Eng
lishmen as there is for Americans, and
they do not want the business killed.
All the skins are dyed and marketed in
London, and there is a good deal of
money in that"